Associate Professor Muireann Irish

Associate Investigator

Contact Details

External Address

Brain and Mind Centre
The University of Sydney

Profile

The ability to remember the past represents one of the most fascinating expressions of the human brain. My research explores the neurocognitive processes that mediate the capacity not only to remember the past and but also to project forwards in time to imagine or simulate the future. Specifically, I investigate how these complex cognitive processes are affected in neurodegenerative disorders in which damage to dissociable regions of the brain is present. Using a combination of novel experimental tasks and advanced neuroimaging techniques my work sheds light upon the neurocognitive mechanisms supporting a wide range of complex forms of thought, essential for adaptive functioning. I am currently funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE130100463).

Recent External Appointments

Consulting Editor, Memory and Cognition. (2016 continuing)

Associate Editor, Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. (2014 continuing)

External Memberships

Member, UNSW Women in Research Network

Elected Member, Memory Disorders Research Society

Member, Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society

Member, Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition

Elected Member, International Society for Behavioural Neuroscience

Awards

The Edgeworth David Medal of The Royal Society of NSW (2016), Irish, M.

NSW Premier's Prizes for Science & Engineering, Joint Winner NSW Early Career Researcher of the Year (2016), Irish, M.

Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia Paul Bourke Award for Early Career Research (2016), Irish, M.

L’Oréal UNESCO Australia and New Zealand For Women in Science Fellowship (2015), Irish, M. In recognition of early career female scientists who have made an outstanding contribution in their field.

NSW Young Tall Poppy Science Award (2014), Irish, M. In recognition of outstanding research/academic achievement as well as excellence in communication and community engagement to promote an understanding of science.

Paxinos Prize for Best Paper Published by a NeuRA Postdoctoral Researcher in 2012 (2013), Irish, M. “Considering the role of semantic memory in episodic future thinking: evidence from semantic dementia”

Conference Presentations, Colloquia, and other presentations

Irish, M. (2017, June). New perspectives on theory of mind - evidence from the dementias. Paper presented at the 4th Annual Australasian Society for Social and Affective Neuroscience Conference (AS4SAN), Melbourne.

Irish, M. (2017, January). Autobiographical memory in health and disease. Symposium conducted at the 12th Biennial Meeting of the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition Conference (SARMAC XII), The University of Sydney, Australia.

Irish, M., Dermody, N., Hodges, J.R., & Piguet, O. (2017, January). Episodic and semantic memory interactions in the service of future thinking - insights from the dementias. Paper presented at the The New Horizon of Foresight: From Philosophy to Applied Settings Symposium, 12th Biennial Meeting of the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition Conference (SARMAC XII), The University of Sydney, Australia.

Irish, M. (2016, November). "Memories are made of this" - Deconstructing episodic-semantic memory interactions in the dementias. Keynote paper presented at the CCD Memory Workshop: 'What is new in memory research?', The University of Sydney, Sydney.

Irish, M. (2015, September). Deconstructing episodic memory processes in the dementias. Paper presented at the 2nd Inter-University Mental Health and Neuroscience Conference, University of New South Wales, Sydney.

Irish, M. (2015, July). The neural signature of recent and remote autobiographical memory – evidence from the dementias. Paper presented at the 5th Pacific Rim Conference of the International Neuropsychology Society (INS) and the 38th Annual Brain Impairment Conference of the Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment (ASSBI), Sydney.

Irish, M. (2015, July). Memory and imagination in Alzheimer’s disease – clinical and neural correlates. Paper presented at the 5th Pacific Rim Conference of the International Neuropsychology Society (INS) and the 38th Annual Brain Impairment Conference of the Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment (ASSBI), Sydney.

Irish, M. (2015, June). Scene construction impairments in Alzheimer’s disease – a unique role for the posterior cingulate. Paper presented at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the International Society for Behavioral Neuroscience, Hawaii, USA.

Irish, M. (2014, December). Past, present, and future: Deconstructing episodic memory in the dementias. Invited paper presented at the Australian Psychological Society College of Clinical Neuropsychologists Annual General Meeting, The University of Sydney, Sydney.

Irish, M. (2012, June). Self-projection and the default network in frontotemporal dementia. Paper presented at the International Society for Behavioural Neuroscience Annual Meeting, San Francisco, USA.

Irish, M. (2012, April). Autobiographical memory in semantic dementia: To infinity and beyond. Presentation given at the CCD Memory Node Meeting: "Memory on the Island”, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.

Irish, M. (2010, September). Deficits in episodic autobiographical memory recall in frontotemporal dementia. Presentation given at the 16th Annual Conference of the APS College of Clinical Neuropsychologists, Freemantle.